The days pass and the scenes are still terrible In some areas of the country where flooding was recorded due to recent rains and river overflows, some of those affected even point out that “it’s worse”.
In Poza Rica, Veracruzone of the most affected communities, the rotten smell This Wednesday it extended several kilometers around.
In the center of the city, a persistent cloud of dust floated over the main avenue where the military works non-stop.
Streets with a large amount of water and mud in Poza Rica
Further east, near the Cazones River that overflowed on Friday, several streets still have a meter of water and mud on which another two meters of garbage, furniture and debris accumulate.
“A week later this looks horrible, worse“There is no way,” laments Ana Luz Saucedo, who fled as best she could with her children, one of them blind, when the water came to them “like the sea.” The woman pointed out that “it seems like it was a tsunami”.
Now you infections worry because, according to the complaint, in addition to the garbage and mud, near his house there is a body which has not yet been collected.
“The deceased it’s already burst and they have not come for him,” he warns.
Of terror: the #PozaRica More vultures have arrived than help for the victims.
“People already smell,” a citizen is heard saying.#Veracruz pic.twitter.com/jBrDFIiGLG— José Díaz (@JJDiazMachuca) October 15, 2025
They detect more damage from floods and rains
The damage caused by last week’s rains continues to increase. The government counts 66 deaths for nowbut the number of missing people continued to rise and now reaches 75 people.
Besides, 191 towns are still incommunicadomost in Hidalgo, in a mountainous area in the center of the country where helicopters have problems arriving due to constant cloud cover.
The public servants of the Commission @Busqueda_MX They work in the field in the tasks of finding people not located in Veracruz, Puebla and Hidalgo, derived from the effects of the recent rains that affected communities in those states of the country. 🇲🇽… pic.twitter.com/bmRWtShXR4
— Arturo Medina (@arturomedinap) October 16, 2025
The authorities have attributed what happened to the confluence of several atmospheric situations —two tropical systems and a cold front and a warm front— right at the end of a strong rainy season that left rivers at full capacity, groundwater tables fully loaded, and hills weakened.
They think that the rain alert came too late
But there are neighbors, like Ana Saucedo, who believe that alerts arrived lateat least in Poza Rica.
“There are many people who died because They didn’t warn, the truth is they didn’t warn”the woman complained.
“They came when the river was already flowing out… but it wasn’t before enough for people to leave”
The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has insisted this week that in these cases alerts do not work like those that can be started when there are hurricanes.
However, he acknowledged that, once the emergency phase is over, the protocols will have to be reviewed “to see what worked, what we need to improve and…know if there are even better warning mechanisms.”
Poor river maintenance
The lack of maintenance of river channels It has also become a source of controversy.
The National Water Commission (Conagua) indicated on Tuesday that there is a “comprehensive and permanent program of desilting of rivers, canals and the formation of protection barriers in the most vulnerable entities of the country.”
“All my animals died. This is all I had left,” Don José lives in the community of El Cabellal, on the outskirts of #Poplarone of the municipalities most devastated by the #rains in #Veracruz. The city is practically in the mud. This afternoon it rained again: pic.twitter.com/QtLtweakF2
— Nacho Lozano (@nacholozano) October 15, 2025
However, among the works carried out there is no mention of the Cazones Riverwhich covered some areas of Poza Rica with up to four meters of water, a situation that the president promised to review.
Deployment of military and civilians in areas affected by rains
The emergency deployment of soldiers, sailors and civilian teams continued in the most affected states, as well as the help of hundreds of volunteers.
In Poza Rica, for example, with a group of women arriving from the Port of Veracruz who They distributed clothes and a thousand tamales that they had prepared for the victims.
Meanwhile, the authorities are working to reestablish passage through the dozens of roads that remain closedas well as electricity, while they control the state of the dams, many of them at maximum capacity.